Tuesday, August 14, 2007

"If this was a movie, you'd be on the cutting room floor" - Second Hood (Jon Polito) THE SINGING DETECTIVE

These days, nearly every DVD has some deleted scenes on the special features menu. Most of the time with few exceptions we can see that they were deleted for a good reason. But what about those scenes we hear talk of and maybe see a random clip or photo of here or there but are currently unavailable on DVD? The ones that have some cache of history or interest that may actually make them worth seeing?

Well, I decided to round up some of the most interesting cinematic suspects right here:1. The War-room pie-fight that was extracted from DR. STRANGELOVE

“Gentlemen! Our gallant young president has been struck down in his prime!” General Turgidson (George C. Scott) exclaims after President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) gets hit in the face by a pie.

This moment occurring in the pie-fight that was originally intended to end Stanley Kubrick's 1964 classic DR. STRANGELOVE was thought to be potentially offensive to the Kennedy family for obvious reasons. The original test screening of the film was slated for November 22, 1963 and had to be re-scheduled, again for obvious reasons but that wasn’t the only problem: Kubrick said that the scene was “not consistent with the satiric tone of the rest of the film” and others thought that the actors covered in cream pie were indistinguishable - therefore ineffective.

The pie-fight, which would be replaced by a stock film sequence of nuclear explosions, is well known to fans and film buffs because photographs of it have shown in the bonus features of nearly every edition of the DVD but the scene itself remains missing in action. Wikipedia reports that “the only known public showing of the footage was in the 1999 screening at the National Film Theatre in London following Kubrick's death” but then there’s that telling [citation needed] notation.

So will this scene that Kubrick once called “a disaster of Homeric proportions” ever see the light of a DVD player’s laser? Probably not any time soon though I think when they’re preparing the 50th Anniversary edition on whatever format will be popular at the time - it’ll be a prized bell and whistle selling-point.

2. Luke's bonding with his long-time buddy Biggs being edited out of STAR WARS

When I was a kid I was perplexed by the pictures (including the one above) in THE STAR WARS STORYBOOK (Scholastic 1978) – which I still have by the way - of 2 scenes that weren’t in the movie I saw many times at the theater. The stills were of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamil) viewing the space battle the movie opens with on his binocs and his chat with Biggs Darklighter (Garrick Hagon) that helped inspire his adventuresome spirit. Lucas has said that he cut the scene because he wanted the film to center on the droids' mission from their point of view so we as an audience wouldn’t meet Luke until the droids met Luke. It would be nice to have the full sequence of Luke on Tatooine pre-C3PO & R2-D2 as a bonus on a non-special edition 1977 theatrical cut of STAR WARS (not calling it A NEW HOPE damnit!). This would be great because apart from Biggs we would all get to see some of Luke’s other friends – Deak, Camie and Fixer. Camie, incidentally was played by Koo Stark – later a British soft-porn actress who dated Prince Andrew.The footage known as "the Anchorhead scene" (because it took place at the Toshi power station in Anchorhead - got it?) was screened for the first time at the San Diego Comic Con in 1998 and released at the same time on a CD-ROM “Behind The Magic”. Now it can be found in many different cuts on YouTube – I would link it here but Lucasfilm constantly cracks down on copyright violations so it probably wouldn’t last long. Just type in “Luke and Biggs” in the YouTube search engine and you’re bound to find it. Just why this isn’t available on any of the many editions of STAR WARS is unknown. When the bank calls and tells Lucas they’ve located another vault in which he can store more money – he may consider its release.3. Steve McQueen as Sam Spade on THE LONG GOODBYE's cutting room floor:In the short documentary “Rip Van Marlowe” on the DVD for this Robert Altman should-be classic the words “deleted scene” flash on black and white production stills of McQueen, Elliot Gould, and Altman while Gould reminisces:“The first day when I walk in to see what was going on – I think Sam Spade was going up in an elevator and I think some of this may have been edited…”Wait Elliot, sorry Mr. Gould - are you saying McQueen had a cameo as Sam Spade?!!? Are you kidding? No research on the internets will confirm or deny this and I doubt this scene will ever surface because it’s most likely destroyed like much Altman footage of that era so I can only sigh.4. The original Audrey II eats everybody ending from LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS:Many demographic-tested endings have been changed through the years but none more notorious than this one from Frank Oz's 1986 sci-fi comedy musical masterpiece. It is the definitive “alternate ending” - a 23 minute sequence which cost 5 million and was true to the stage production’s narrative, in which Seymour (Rick Moranis) is defeated by the ever-growing plant and even feeds Audrey II the dead Audrey (Ellen Greene) before getting eaten himself. Audrey II and its many clones take over the planet as the song “Don’t Feed The Plants” serenades or better yet - warns the audience. This sequence was actually released in black and white without sound or special effects on a Warner Bros. Special Edition in 1998 but yanked off the market by producer mogul David Geffen. Early this year according to Wikipedia – “Warner Bros. hinted that a DVD re-issue featuring the original ending may be on its way” so it looks like we may be able to finally see the mean green mother from outer space in all its destructive glory at some point on the horizon.5. Kevin Costner As The Dead Guy InTHE BIG CHILLThe most significant character in Lawrence Kasdan's 1983 baby boomer cinema standard we never see. Well, we see parts of his body as it is being dressed for the funeral but never his face. So what was to be Costner’s big break turned out to be extra-work as a corpse. Costner was cast as Alex, the charismatic college glue that all the other characters (including William Hurt, Glenn Close, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Berrenger, and Jo Beth Williams) are forever stuck to.Costner was supposed to be seen in flashbacks but those were cut and despite much protest were not included in the 10 minutes of deleted scenes on the 20th Anniversary Special Edition DVD. Even if you hate Costner, and I know that many of you do, I think it would be interesting to see how he relates to that particular ensemble cast. Maybe he didn’t live up to his character’s implied charm and his deletion helped better ground the movie – I dunno. 25th anniversary maybe? Post-note: Kasdan cast Costner in his next film SILVERADO to make up for the Alex omission.

Another scene taken from a Kubrick classic. According to the IMDb:“Halloran's (Scatman Crothers) death scene as filmed is not the one we actually see. The one filmed depicts a much longer, much more graphic death. In its entirety, the scene lasts almost seventy seconds, and is full of gore. Rather then just run up and hit him as seen in the released version, Jack (Jack Nicholson) runs up, hits him in the back of the head. Halloran screams. Jack pulls the ax back, and then slams the spike on the back of the ax into the base of Halloran's spine. Halloran screams and recoils, and then Jack slams the ax into his back and he falls down. Halloran rolls onto his back and is looking up, and Jack starts to beat him with the ax before he "hears" something and leaves.”This is a scene I believe we will be soon able to appraise because the 2 disc Special Edition DVD will be released October 23rd this year. With hope we will also be able to see the scene that was originally at the end where Wendy (Shelly Duvall) is told her husband’s body was never found. This scene actually appeared when the film was first released but cut by Kubrick a week later.7. Odd Promotional Photo Indicates Odd Outtake FromANNIE HALL

None of Woody Allen’s movies on DVD have any extras other than a trailer so the prospect of ever seeing anything resembling a deleted scene is pretty slim. Too bad because this photo issued as a publicity still to promote his 1977 Oscar winner ANNIE HALL implies some juicy cut material. No dialogue is known but it looks like it takes place during Alvy and Annie’s first break-up when Alvy is randomly questioning people on the street about their love lives and they all have great one-liner answers. Can’t imagine what this guy's was. Funny how a shot from a scene unused in the movie makes the rounds as advertising but even funnier that 30 years later a blogger like me would assign such significance to it. Another sigh.8. Alternate Jim Garrison Wins The Clay Shaw Trial Climax inJFKAccording to Robert Sam Anson in Esquire Magazine (November 1991) as “a joke” JFK Director Oliver Stone filmed “a not-to-be used scene showing Shaw’s (Tommy Lee Jones) jury bringing in a guilty verdict.” In complete contrast to Woody Allen, Stone has had his DVDs loaded with extras – director’s cuts, commentaries, documentaries, and scores of deleted scenes so where is this gem? It would be rather amusing to see Garrison (Costner *) triumphant from the victory of being the first person to bring a trial in the murder of John Kennedy. With all the special editions of the film we’ve seen so far it’s pretty likely that we will one day see this “joke.”* Funny how somebody whose average movie is 3 hours long still makes me want to see more footage! Long live Costner!

9. Enid Sleeps With Josh inGHOST WORLDThis scene, which comes directly from the Daniel Clowes graphic novel that Terry Zwigoff's 2001 film was adapted from, takes place in the third act after Seymour (Steve Buscemi) and Rebecca (Scarlet Johanssen) shun Enid's (Thora Birch) company one sad day. According to the published screenplay, Enid shows up at Josh’s (Brad Renfro) meager hotel room/apartment and shyly but slyly seduces him. It seems this was omitted because we would have even less sympathy for Enid as she goes on to sleep with Seymour causing a harmful ripple effect. Still since the GHOST WORLD DVD has such inessential deleted scenes involving incidental characters it would be nice to see such an actual major discarded plot point. The movie has never been re-released in any form so its official appearance it still a possibility but I’m not holding my breath.10.The Spiderwomen, Myrtle & Beryl, Removed FromTIME BANDITSThere was a lot in the published screenplay – evidenced in Gilliam’s doodles, production stills, and full pages of dialogue that were not used in TIME BANDITS. This is typical of his work – all the published Python scripts are the same way (MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL has page after page crossed off in crayon) so this is no surprise but where is the actual footage? Especially of the scene from the Time of Legends sequence in which the time travelling dwarfs encounter two spinster spider-women (Myrtle and Beryl) who knit webs in which to catch passing knights. Gilliam recalls:"That was another desperate moment, mainly because that sequence was an afterthought. Mike Palin and I had originally written another whole sequence about two spider women who ensnare some of the bandits in their web. We actually filmed this - and it was marvelous. But it now required a scene on either side to get us from the giant to the fortress, and we had run out of money.”Fairly certain this bit will show up – Gilliam never seems to throw away footage (or any idea) and the many formats in the years to come will have special feature capabilities beyond our wildest dreams (or at least beyond mine) so I bet this will someday make the cut.The spider-women are named Myrtle and Beryl according to many sources but only Myrtle Devenish as Beryl is credited on the IMDb which makes me think that this is incorrect info. Devenish plays a game show contestant on the game show satire "Your Money Or Your Life" seen early in the film on a background television. It’s conceivable she also played one of the spider-women but the names seem off. Anybody know the deal here?I know this is only scratching the rarely seen scenes surface so please leave your comments below or email:boopbloop7@gmail.com

This post is dedicated to Merv Griffin Merv as a broadcaster wore many hats – game show host, talk show host, real-estate magnate, pop-crooner, etc. and while he did relatively little film work Film Babble would like to highlight his clever cameo as himself (billed as the Elevator killer) in THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS(Dir. Carl Reiner, 1983). Dr. Hfuhruhurr (Steve Martin) confronts him right after a killing and asks “why?” Merv’s answer:“I don't know. I've always just loved to kill. I really enjoyed it. But then I got famous, and - it's just too hard for me. And so many witnesses. I mean, everybody recognized me. I couldn't even lurk anymore. I'd hear, "Who's that lurking over there? Isn't that Merv Griffin?" So I came to Europe to kill. And it's really worked out very well for me.”

46 comments:

Sorry to burst your bubble, but we won't be seeing that alternate death scene of Hallorann from The Shining. Ever. I've talked with assistant sound editor Gordon Stainforth, and he confirmed that Kubrick destroyed all unused footage(he did this with almost every film he did). Sorry.

The upcoming 2-disc DVD won't contain any deleted scenes, either. We'll be getting 3 featurettes, commentary by 2 people who worked on the film, the 1980 documentary by Vivian Kubrick and the original theatrical trailer. It's all rather disappointing for fans who've waited 2+ years for this(including me).

Merv Griffin was a dangerous closeted homosexual who was know to destroy the careers of actual 'out' gays on his staff rather than have them possibly disclose his 'secret.' With Eva Gabor as his beard, he exhibited the very worst kind of self-hatred.

It's a shame you didn't include the infamous deleted scenes from David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. Lynch apparently filmed upwards of five hours of footage and many storylines involving original Twin Peaks cast members were cut if they didn't relate to Laura Palmer.

There are several pictures on the set of certain scenes and there are online petitions and even a MySpace page!

There were rumours they would appear on the European release, but that never seemed to happen.

It's notable though because now that season two of Twin Peaks has been released on DVD, these deleted scenes are the last piece of the Twin Peaks puzzle and it would be great if us Twin Peaks fanatics could get one last never-before-seen present.

Not a film buff, but I saw the Biggs Darklighter scene off the net in an O.K. Quicktime format. Not bad, Luke's friends treat him like dirt. The stupid kid who talks of space battles. Except for Biggs, who treats him like his best friend. Great stuff, should of been somewhere.

JFK itself can be seen as a joke from a real historical perspective. I know movies is fake they is, but that movie really is overboard. I read about the assassination and it convinces me Oswald was a big loser who thought killing the president would make his life mean something. It wasn't the first tiime he tried to kill someone, either.

A major deleted scene (I guess I should say scenes): Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. There's apparently over an hour worth of deleted material that may explain what the hell was going on in that movie. And it very well may make it onto DVD very soon.

Amen to your comments on the Anchorhead scene. I have that same picture book from the 70's, and could swear my mind told me it was in the movie!!

Totally agree with your thought that if there is more money to be made Lucas will release it later. And of course I'll buy it. Maybe it will be part of the 8 disc collection packaged in a Millenium Falcon case. LOL.

Don't hold your breath on more Ghost World deleted scenes coming to DVD. From an interview with Zwigoff back in 2001:

"They won't let me put a lot of the deleted scenes on the DVD. I'm having a fight now. Thora Birch doesn't want to allow it. Her father is her manager and I have yet to talk to him...The scenes that I would put in are very well acted on her part. I think they would be very interesting for people to see. I don't know what her objection is to it. I didn't realize that all the actors on deleted scenes have to sign off on them before you can use them. I would just assume that the studio owns them but apparently not."

I have actually seen the Ghost World footage... I saw an early cut of the film at a screening, and although it was quite a while ago, I remember feeling it made the film stronger, though it definitely made her less sympathetic since she basically uses this guy after he kind of confesses his love to her.

The two spinster spiderweb women in the "Time Bandits" screenplay were named Maisie and Myrtle. The husband-and-wife gameshow contestants were named Beryl and Jumbo (her nickname for him natch.) Come to think of it, there was an entire scene of the game show in the screenplay (you only see a few seconds of it in the final film, in the background on Kevin's parents' TV set.) The entire game show scene would be an interesting deleted scene (wasn't Jim Broadbent the game show host?)

I like the list, but I wish you'd mentioned the infamous deleted scene from BLUE VELVET. All there is on the Special Edition DVD of Blue Velvet is a production still montage. The scene I'm referring to is where Frank Booth is taking Jeffrey to the bar and asks what he drinks. HEINEKEN?! FUCK THAT SHIT! PABST BLUE RIBBON!Anyhoo, right after that,apparently, they go into the bar and there's this whole scene, and at the end, some woman lights her nipples on fire! All this can be seen in a montage with Angelo Badalamenti music underneath with just production stills. Now THAT is something I'd like to see!

Not sure if anyone mentioned this, but supposedly, John Hughes shot a lot of footage for Planes, Trains, and Automobiles that was ultimately cut (supposedly enough to edit into a three-hour version), but it was all locked away at Paramount and has now probably deteriorated. I dunno. This is according to IMDb.

I saw a preview of L.A. STORY years ago with a scene of John Lithgow as a Super-Agent who jet-packed his way into meetings and lunches. It was all cut out of the final movie. I would LOVE to see those out-takes on a dvd at some time.

To add to what Greg said above about the Spider women scene from TIME BANDITS, I think it could be very conceiviable that its the same actress from the game show scene, as it would be one more thing from the mundane world being mirrored in the fantasy world Kevin finds himself in. Remember too that just a few minutes later the game show host (Yes, that's Jim Broadbent) shows up as a guise of Evil's.

I have to tell you, although I love watching movies I'm not the kind of ubergeek who pays any attention to deleted scenes and extras on DVDs. So the scenes you list are more are less unknown to me. I would love to see the Biggs footage; I thought Lucas had put everything out there in the myriad superduper special deluxe versions of SW already.

As always, love the blogs...My personal rarely seen deleted scene is 1941, Belushi is swiming towards the Japanese sub and sees Akroyd. they both go "Hey..." and Belushi swims off...Take it easyDrGonzoTheGreat@aol.com

I think in general, David Lynch has a ton of deleted scenes. From what I've heard, there was a four hour version of Blue Velvet, all of which is lost, the original Eraserhead was roughly 30 minutes longer, much of which is lost, Dune has a lot of footage I'm sure, but Lynch has disowned it as his only failure from his point of view, and Mulholland Dr has some known cut material. Based on his DVDs, David is not really into deleted scenes.

Some deleted scenes are better left to the waste bin. The deleted scenes on the Apocalypse Now Complete Dossier DVD were mostly unfinished and added nothing to the story. Only a couple were interesting to watch. As for American Beauty, my favorite film, the original ending where the kids are convicted of Spacey's murder, Spacey flying, and the fact that the makers originally approached Chevy Chase for the lead shows how the film was really a case of pearls before swine and the fact that it turned out as great as it did is all the more miraculous.

Enjoyed your article, but it was missing a few other "classic" deleted scenes.

What about "The Blues Brothers"? Towards the end, Elwood says, "Jake, Jake... I gotta pull over." No explanation is given, and no missing footage is available on DVD. However, this "missing" sequence was aired at least twice on a major network channel (such as TNT or USA). What's missing? In the middle of the chase, Elwood gets out of the car, stands by the side of the road and pees.

Then there's the octopus in "The Goonies". At the end, the kids are being interviewed by a news crew; Data tells the crew, "The octopus was really scary", but in the mainstream version, there isn't any octopus. I haven't checked a recent DVD edition, but my DVD does not have any deleted sequences explaining this comment. However, "The Goonies" aired several times on a Disney-owned cable channel WITH the missing sequence - there is, in fact, an octopus which the kids eventually chase away/destroy by putting a walkman in its mouth.

How about "My Cousin Vinny" where Joe Pesci is explaining to the prosecuting attorney about Judge Malloy? It's very irritating to hear Pesci say, "I remember, he was so proud of me" in a tone of voice that CLEARLY indicates there's more after that sentence, only to have the conversation end there. What makes it more frustrating is the prosecutor responds to that comment with, "That's a great story." You never hear the story, but you're supposed to acknowledge it's great. Just once I'd like to know what the story is.

So, there's a few more. If you write a sequel to your article, let me know - I'm sure I can dig up more.

Concerning the many deleted scenes of Stanley Kubrick movies, it's safe to assume nobody will see them again, I've read an article where Stanley claimed to have destroyed the famous pie fight footage of "Dr. Strangelove", in another article Malcolm McDowell quoted someone close to Kubrick saying he had seen him destroy a truckload of unused film from "A Clockwork Orange"... So I don't think there's hope of finding unused footage of Stanley Kubrick movies...

Most of Todd Solondz's films are cut to the brim, apparently. I was told that James Van Der Beek has a gay sex scene in Storytelling that got cut. Considering that Storytelling is under 90 minutes, I bet there's even more crazy stuff he shot but later cut!

Most of Todd Solondz's films are cut to the brim, apparently. I was told that James Van Der Beek has a gay sex scene in Storytelling that got cut. Considering that Storytelling is under 90 minutes, I bet there's even more crazy stuff he shot but later cut!

Ralph Rosenblum's autobiography talks about the making of Annie Hall. Rosenblum edited the picture and talks about how the film was shaped in the edit suite. He also talks about all the great and funny material that was dropped to make the film what it was. Apparently they lost a boat load of brilliantly funny stuff.

How about the other, unambiguous ending to John Carpenter's The Thing? The altogether happier one where MacReady escapes and is proven not to be an imitation. They shot this as insurance in case the preview audiences hated the original as it stood (and still stands) jeff

That the longer version of Halloran's death scene was ever seen in any released version of The Shining is a complete myth. In fact it only lasted for about 9 hours, the editing having been completed at about one in the morning and that half of the scene being cut out of the movie at about ten in the morning - all many months before it was released. I was the only person who ever saw it apart from Stanley K. He was obviously worried about it being too graphic and, first thing in the morning, told me to take it out. I know for a fact that the deleted section was then dismantled, so that version could never be reconstructed.

That the longer version of Halloran's death scene was ever seen in any released version of The Shining is a complete myth. In fact it only survived for about 9 hours, the editing having been completed at about one in the morning and that half of the scene being cut out of the movie at about ten in the morning - all many months before it was released. I was the only person who ever saw it apart from Stanley K. He was obviously worried about it being too graphic and, first thing in the morning, told me to take it out. I know for a fact that the deleted section was then dismantled, so that version could never be reconstructed.

Some of Paul Verhoeven's movies has some footage deleted from it that has not been (and probably will not be) released.

One of them is Total Recall. The film has a few seconds of graphic violence omitted from it. Many of it is trimmings of ultra violent sequences. One of them, which involves a drill being dug into a person's stomach has been optically cropped. (The scene is intact it is just zoomed in to not show the drill) Those scenes as of today, have not yet been released.

Another example is Bruce Lee in "The Big Boss." Probably about 5 minutes worth of footage was cut. It is rumored that the full uncut version that premiered in 1971 is in the hands of producer Jerry Weintraub who has said that he won't release the footage for some reason.

Don't hold your breath for those Costner scenes, either, film fans. Kasdan has stated firmly that those scenes would make the film a completely different experience and he has no intention of releasing them. I can totally see his point, as well. He's been badgered by fans for a "director's cut" of the film, but has stated that the released versions of his movies ARE his director's cuts and that's that.

Bio:

Film Babble Blog is written, produced and directed by: Daniel Cook Johnson - A Triangle area, N.C. based writer. His work has appeared in The Chapel Hill News, The Raleigh News & Observer, and Independent Weekly.